The Datsuns

Six months earlier people were telling New Zealand's Datsuns to give up. In mid-2002 London's music press was hailing them as “genius”. By then The Datsuns had already been playing their brand of garage rock for six years, ever since they met at school in Cambridge and formed a band called Trinket.

Back in 1997, as Trinket, they won the local radio station's Battle Of The Bands. The following year, now called the Datsuns, they won again. They took the name from the Japanese car prevalent in the Antipodean car market. A Cadillac or Rolls Royce seemed beyond their horizons. Initially, in a nod to punk heroes the Ramones the band all adopted the group's name as their surname.

In the years that followed the group released only a handful of singles, all on vinyl and all on their own record label, Hell Squad Records. While beloved of student radio and known for their live Who-like performances, they were a relatively unknown group even at home. Things started to look up in March 2001, when a tour of Australia caused a bit of a stir, especially in Melbourne. Encouraged, the Datsuns made plans to take on London.

First it was the fickle London music press which flocked to the group's gigs, jostling with each other to hail the Datsuns as the greatest thing they'd seen. Record companies followed, waving cheque books in the faces. One major label boss flew in from New York to check out the action. Their London tour of duty had started with the band sleeping on other people's couches. Before long at least one hopeful record company was fronting hotel bills. In July 2002 the band signed with the V2 label. Without record company involvement, the first album was already recorded and ready for release.

Once described like what Jimmy Page would have if he grew up a punk, it seemed quite natural if also remarkable when Led Zeppelin bass player John Paul Jones signed up to produce the Datsuns' second album after watching them at a gig. The first album took just 18 days to record. For the second album they took five weeks, but still just pressed record and played the songs they'd been playing live. The lyrics for the first album were stream of consciousness, the lyrics for the second album 'Outta Sight Outta Mind' more considered having been refined while on the road.

Considering the publicity generated by the John Paul Jones collaboration the Datsuns' record company was keen to team them with another big name for the third album. While the record company and the band worked through separate lists of favoured names without agreement the months went by, and songs accumulated in the meantime. An EP 'Stuck Here For Days' was offered to fans in the interim. In the end the the Datsuns produced 'Smoke And Mirrors' themselves. After the release of the third album, drummer Matt Osment quit just three days before a major tour and he was replaced by Ben Cole.

Planning to record their next album in Germany the band relocated, still living together as they'd done while based in London. They rented a flat and rehearsed every day for nine months, until they became bored with the process and recorded 'Head Stunts' in Sweden instead. What they brought with then from Germany were the songs they'd been jamming on and the album name. While living in Germany guitarist Phil had found a wall-sized piece of cardboard and dragged it back to the flat. He then proceeded to fill the cardboard with poems, songs and anagrams. 'Head Stunts" in an anagram of "The Datsuns."